Gillian Cross is perhaps best known for her Demon Headmaster series and its BBC adaptation.

She has won many of the most prestigious awards for children’s fiction, including the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children’s Book Award and the Smarties Prize.

She lives near Coventry with her husband.

Neil Packer's work for children includes his award-winning illustrations for Gillian Cross' retellings of the Odyssey and the Iliad, as well as for the children's edition of Peter Frankopan's international bestseller The Silk Roads (Bloomsbury). This is the first book he has both written and illustrated for Walker.